Category: Health and Traits

New rules issued by the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this month mean we may finally know what it means when a label on food we buy says “Gluten-Free.”
The new standards are hugely important for the more than 3 million Americans with celiac disease as well as many others who for other reasons may ...

Robin Smith, Health Content Scientist
A report published this month in the journal Nature describes a breakthrough in scientists' understanding of Alzheimer's Disease. Researchers from Columbia University dissected the relationship between a genetic risk factor in the APOE gene and the formation of protein ...

While the fact that 23andMe started airing commercials for the first time is in-and-of itself new, we don’t want you to miss something else that is unique about this campaign.
Each of the actors used in the commercials tested with 23andMe. Like our customers they each wanted to explore their own DNA. The ...

When he signed up as one of 23andMe’s first customers, Jonathan Zittrain thought that one day personal genetic testing could transform healthcare, he just didn’t imagine it would involve him.
Jonathan writes books, teaches at Harvard Law School and is the co-director of the university’s Berkman Center for ...

Ignorance isn’t always bliss and what you don’t know really can hurt you, or so Jennifer Goldstein has learned.
If she hadn’t tested she might never have seen her doctor; never would have asked the right questions; never taken the action she needed to keep herself healthy.
“But for the test I’d have ...

Sometimes when she sees her 5-year-old daughter thriving and making up for lost time, Kristen Whitaker says it makes her feel “almost weepy.”
It reminds her that for a long time her daughter wasn’t doing so well. It reminds Kristen that her little girl was for a time falling behind on the growth chart, not ...

After spending 15 years as a primary care physician, Dr. Mark Costa wanted a better way to practice medicine, one that gave him more time with each of his patients.
So the Boston area physician and his wife, Marilyn Chown, a medical researcher and nurse, opened a small medical practice of their own. The ...

For the live-updated, fully-labelled, interactive version of this graphic, click here.
By Alexandra Carmichael, Co-Founder of CureTogether
Nearly two years ago, CureTogether released a list of the top patient-rated treatments for vulvodynia, a common form of female reproductive pain that makes regular ...

By Amick B.
There are many studies that look at the health impacts of drinking coffee, but you’d be forgiven if you weren’t clear about whether it’s good for you.
Research has found consuming coffee could potentially prevent heart disease, type-2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and liver cancer, but the ...

Robin Smith, Health Content Scientist
Barring injury, disease or capture, some scientists believe that a lobster could live virtually forever. They are amongst a select group of animals, including tortoises, clams and jellyfish, that are "negligibly senescent."
They don't age much. So why aren't we ...

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